Seriously, what is so hard about being a great leader? I’m not asking what does it take to be a great CEO or what does it take to have the biggest most profitable business in your market. I just want to know what’s so tough about being a leader.
During day 2 of HBS leadership Best Practices, we studied
- The turnaround of IBM in the 90′s by Lou Gerstner. who wrote a book: Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround The case was presented byBruce Herreld, who was brought in by Gerstner as part of the change management team.
- The turnaround of the Indian tech giant, HCL as it moved away from hardware into software and services by Vineet Nayar. Who blogs on HBR and wrote a book: Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
- Gary Rogers, the former CEO of Dreyer’s ice cream, who bought Dreyer’s and built it up to a huge brand and sold it to Nestle. He didn’t write a book but is now the Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School.
- On Monday we covered the turn around of Continental Airlines by Gordon Bethune. Who wrote a book (I’m seeing a trend) From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental’s Remarkable Comeback
What’s so hard about being a great leader?
I’m not tweeting in class because they asked us not to but also because the classes are very engaging with lots of conversation and participation so here are the snippets of tweetable wisdom I wrote down:
- “A turnaround is a transformation tragically delayed.”
- “No one wins on strategy. You win on execution” (This was from a former McKinsey guy)
- Anything that you have an advantage on today, you will eventually lose.
- The more ownership employees feel the more productive they are.
- Among knowledge workers, in highly complex work, the difference in productivity between the top 1% and the rest of your employees (in any business) is 127%.
- The difference between the top 1% and the bottom 1% is infinite, because there are people who are incapable of doing their job.
- It is better to cannibalize your own business than let your competitors cannibalize it.
- Two types of leaders: Presiders and Transformers.
- Are you constructively shocking your people daily to change?
What’s so hard about being a great leader?
If I could simplify all the case studies and lectures of the last two days (and probably the next 3 days) it would be this:
Internally
- Hire the best people. Gary Rogers said, “You can either hire smart or manage tough.”
- Then treat your people great. Vineet went so far as to say, “Employees First. Customers Second.”
- Always strive for greatness.
Externally
- Listen to your customer and give them what they want. I don’t think I need to go on in too great of detail about the importance of customer service here.
- Keep your eyes on the market and look for coming changes.
What’s so hard about being a great leader?
So in theory none of this is very tough. Most of what we’ve learned has been common sense. But there’s one problem. We’re human. Being great is really hard. Being great at anything takes persistence. Every day you have to show up and give everything you have and I don’t care what anyone says, no one wants to give 100% of their effort 100% of the time.
What’s so hard about being great is that we can imagine a level of greatness that exceeds our own abilities. No one can ever achieve their own vision of greatness. I think what makes a great leader is someone who’s willing to show up every day and strive to do better. You’re human, you’re not perfect so give yourself some credit.
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